Star Blocks and Bouncy Balls, Magic Spells and Milky Wishes
by Apples Of Avalon
Summary: A collection of drabbles about a mischievous onion witch, a malicious purple jester and how their lives got intertwined. Marx/Grill; currently accepting prompts for chapter ideas. Length and themes of chapters may vary.
1. Meeting

_Of all the mysteries the Gamble Galaxy has to offer, the Cosmic Comet NOVA is the most perplexing of all mysteries. Many theories exist regarding its creation but none can be confirmed, and as to why it was built-_

"Pass it to me, guys!"

_-and as to why it was built, not even the most regarded scholars can come to a conclusion. _

_NOVA is powered by Star Energy, as so far the only effective method to summon it is through the collected energy of the Eight Dream Fountains located in the eight planets to our galaxy's right side. Said group of planets include: Pop Star, Cavius, Hotbeat-_

"Over here! OVER HERE!"

_-Hotbeat, Skyhigh, Mekkai, Floria, Aquarius and Halfmoon. Each Fountain is protected by a guardian whose purpose is to test whoever dares to come close; the power of the Fountains is too dangerous to fall on the wrong hands and not anyone can be allowed to use it. But those brave enough to explore all of the eight planets and retrieve enough Star Power to summon the Comet would receive a gift worth more than all the riches of the Gamble Galaxy; said warrior would be rewarded with-_

"YOU THREW IT TOO HARD!"

Scowling, the young purple puffball looked away from the paragraph he had tried to read over and over again for the last half-hour, glaring at the Poppy Bro Jr. and Plasma Wisp that were playing with a Frisbee not too far away from him. The obnoxious Poppy Bro kept yelling at his friend, running around and waving his arms like an idiot, and he was sure at this point that the kid was being loud deliberately just to spite him.

_I hate Dreamlanders. Ugh._

The purple puffball knew better than to pay attention to his taunting though, so he turned around to read his favorite book again; an old tome on the magical nature of the Gamble Galaxy's many planets and a guide to their numerous artifacts. The book was very old and thick and almost as big as the boy himself, but he still preferred to take it around with him if just to keep reading about NOVA's story.

He remembered finding that book in a small village back in Green Greens; he had fallen in love with it the moment he began to read it, but the library's owner said it wasn't for sale and he wasn't willing to walk into town and being stared at every day, so he had made a run for it with the book the moment the owner stopped looking at him. And despite his stubby legs and the book being so heavy, he managed to escape with the tome without anybody following him. He would never be able to go back to that village, but that didn't really bother him.

He had just started reading about the Great Comet NOVA, and it was already his favorite chapter; the tome spoke of a great gift that was given to those who summoned him by traveling all over the galaxy and the idea of adventure and treasure made his skin tingle. Life in Pop Star was too peaceful and boring for him, and all his life he had dreamed of seeing other planets.

He didn't care that he was too weak and small to do something as dangerous as traveling across the galaxy on his own; he had sworn to himself that one day he would be able to pull it off.

And then he would show them all.

The book was still open on the page he had last read; he could tell by the big picture of NOVA that took the entire left page, its baby blue eyes looking right through him. He plopped right in front of the book, making the pompons of his red and blue jester hat bounce, and quickly read through its paragraphs for the line he had left off-

_**WHACK!**_

The next thing he was aware of was a sharp, stinging pain on his temple as something hard collided with the side of his head, and with a pained cry he fell on his face. Groaning, he rolled to his side and saw the Poppy Bro and Plasma Wisp from earlier running towards him. Their bright green Frisbee was right in front of him.

"Hey, that's our Frisbee! You better give it back!" The Poppy Bro yelled, glaring at the jester as he stopped in his tracks a good distance from the jester. His Plasma Wisp friend floated next to him, looking nervous and not as confident as his plasma crackled erratically. Both looked at Marx lying down on the floor as if he were a rabid Scarfy ready to bite their faces off.

Growling under his breath, the purple puffball got on his feet with great difficulty; his head was throbbing and the world around him was spinning from the impact, but even so he still managed to give the Poppy Bro a fake smile; "Y'know, if I didn't know any better I would say you did that on purpose. But you wouldn't do that, would you?" he drawled, his words dripping with sarcasm.

"So? It's not like you can prove it," The Poppy Bro sneered, "and no one around here would believe you anyways even if you were right, you _freak_."

The jester's fake smile tightened as his teeth ground against each other. If there was something he _absolutely_ couldn't stand, it was being called a freak.

"C'mon Blast, let's just get the Frisbee back and leave him alone!" The Plasma Wisp pleaded from aside, his electric form flickering as his eyes nervously darted between his friend and the puffball, "Why can't we just leave him alone?"

"What? I'm just lettin' this freak know his place. It's not my fault he's so big-headed!" the jester's smile turned into a snarl as Blast turned to look at him smugly, "He doesn't belong here; my Dad and everyone else back home said so. I don't have to apologize to some freaky clown for snoopin' around our place-"

"First of all, I'm not a clown; I'm a jester, you idiot. And second of all-"

"And what's with the book? Are you some kind of bookworm nerd?" The jester's hairs stood on end as the obnoxious Poppy Bro reached out for his precious tome; "I bet it's not even yours! I wonder how much will they give me for it?"

"No! That's mine! Take your hands off it-"

_**BONK!**_

Suddenly, a flash of yellow fell down from the tree and on Blast's head; the Poppy Bro yelled out in pain and fell on his butt, waving his arms around as if to avoid more hits. The yellow object landed right at the jester's feet, and his eyes widened as he realized what it was.

"A…..Star Block?"

Not much time passed after he said that when more yellow blurs – Star Blocks – began to fall from the tree like fruit, hitting Blast and his Plasma Wisp buddy but somehow not him. The Plasma Wisp was frantically trying to hit away the Blocks with his electric powers, but there were too many Star Blocks for him to destroy, "Blast! I told you - OW! - We should've grabbed the Frisbee – OW! – and just leave!"

"Shut up, Blitz – OUCH!" Blast tried to summon one of his signature bombs to get rid of the blocks, but he took too long trying to evade them and it exploded right on his face, leaving him charred and smoking; "L-let's get out of here before – OW! LET'S JUST GET OUT OF HERE!"

Both boys ran for their lives, whining and screaming, and surprisingly about a dozen Star Blocks began floating after them. Although still confused, the jester couldn't help but genuinely smile as he saw them both run with their tails between their legs; whatever it was, it was probably karma for hurting him and trying to take his book.

"Did you see the look on their faces? That was priceless!"

With a yelp, the jester looked around for the source of the sudden voice, and a burst of color on the edge of his vision caught his attention. On top of a tree branch he saw a giant onion – it had to be an onion, there just wasn't another way to describe it – pointing at the running Helpers and laughing. Its grass green eyes met his own violet ones – and he realized it was a she – and she jumped out of the tree and landed next to him; "Oh hey, did you like my little trick? I call it a Block Blizzard! Although 'Avalanche' also has a nice ring to it, don't you think so-"

"Who the heck are you?" he growled; years of taunting and insults had taught him never to trust anybody as he narrowed his gaze at the intruder, "And what was that you just did? Why did you help me!?"

"What, was it wrong for me to help you?" If the onion noticed the puffball's hostility, she showed no signs of acknowledging it as the block-shaped rattle on her yellow and purple witch hat jingled, "I saw those bullies bothering you and I thought I could help you out!"

"Well that's just too bad, because it's not like I needed your help anyways!" he snarled at her, then turned around to close his book with the intention of taking it with him, "I didn't need anybody's help! I could've dealt with those idiots myself, no problem!"

"…You know, you're really cute when you're angry like that."

The compliment made him stop on his tracks, a sudden blush staining his cheeks red. "D-don't change the subject! I COULD HAVE DEALT WITH THEM, OK!?" The jester turned around to glare at the onion witch, his hat's pompons missing her by an inch, "I don't even know you and I'm NOT interested in doing so, so how about you just get on your way and leave me alone!?"

He didn't wait for her to answer and turned back again to grab his book, but to his shock the tome was floating in the air encased in a sparkling lime green light. He heard the girl giggle behind him and he turned to bare his fangs at her; her right hand was glowing in the same green light and her eyes were looking amusingly at him, "Put. It. Down. _Now_."

"Nah. Not until we're at your place, buddy." She twirled her hand and the book spun around the jester, making him spin before floating next to her, "How do you even carry this thing? It's so heavy!"

"I told you I don't need your help!"

"And what if I want to stay and help you? You're not good at this whole 'making friends' thing, are you?"

The witch was starting to drive him insane, but instead he bit his lip as she skipped past him, the tome floating along. The boy sighed to himself; just what had he gotten himself into?

She suddenly turned on the heels of her big red shoes to look at him, her eyes sparkling in the sunlight, "And I'm Grill, by the way. What's your name?"

He intended to answer her with a stinging remark, but anything he had planned to say vanished as he looked at her eyes.

He couldn't remember anyone's eyes sparkling the way hers did.

Grumbling, he quickened his pace to go ahead of her, mumbling barely loud enough for Grill to hear:

"Marx."


	2. Breakfast

Marx hated Grill. There was no other way around it.

She was annoying. She was persistent. She was always tagging alongside him like a lost puppy even after making perfectly it perfectly clear that he wanted her to go away, always so irritatingly happy and energetic and _nice_ to him.

He hated her. He wanted her gone.

But she wouldn't leave. Every morning, she would come to his home – he called an abandoned tree stump filled with his few personal belongings 'home' anyways – and insist that they spend the day together like the 'friends' they are, even if their idea of spending the day is Marx reading his tome while Grill plays pranks on any Dreamlander passing by.

Tch, 'friends'. Yeah, _right_.

The purple jester grinded his teeth together as he struggled to tie his bowtie correctly with his teeth. That stupid oversized onion wasn't his friend; friends were only good for getting in the way, and he certainly didn't need any of those. He had lived just fine on his own until now, and he would continue to do so.

And he just couldn't let her hang around him for too long. She would ruin everything, she would sooner or later find out about his _plans_ and ruin them-

"Maaaaaarx~!"

Speak of the devil.

…..Maybe if he kept quiet long enough, she would go away?

"I know you're in there, silly! I can see your hat through the window!"

Or maybe not.

Cursing under his breath, Marx dragged his feet towards the door. He would have to tell her now, tell her that he wanted her gone from his life before she became a liability. No buts or ifs; he would kick her out through and through.

_I hate you. I can't stand you. Every time I see you my day is instantly ruined. You're ugly and annoying and your onion stench is disgusting. Your hat is tacky and it burns my eyes just to look at it._

Ah yes, any of those would do the trick for sure. With a wicked smile he finally got the door to open, but it quickly turned into a frown once he saw what the witch had brought along with her.

"Good morning, Marx~!" Grill sang, extending her floating hands for the jester to take a better look at the basket she was carrying with her, "I brought you something special, so I hope you haven't eaten anything today!"

"You…you brought me food?" Marx eyed the basket, and sure enough a sweet and warm smell wafted from it. His mouth watered almost instantly and his stomach started growling, but he ignored it and scowled at the girl before him, "What's in it, huh? Poison? Worms? Why would you cook something for me out of the blue?"

Much to his chagrin, Grill just laughed and completely ignored his insults, "Because we're friends, remember? And it's not poisoned or filled with worms, dummy; that would make the pie taste bitter!"

"I already know that, you stupid- Wait, you baked me a pie?"

"Yup, strawberry pie! That's your favorite, right?" Marx blinked at her question; how could she possibly know that? "I know because when we stopped at that market in Yogurt Yard a couple of days ago, you got this dreamy look on your face when we stopped by the fruit stand. For a second I thought you would jump right into that pile of strawberries and eat them in front of everyone!"

The Yogurt Yard market; he remembered that it had been her idea. She had grown tired of sitting around while he read his book, and had literally dragged him to Yogurt Yard to buy some food for her cooking, to do something _she_ liked for a change (A cooking onion; how ironic).

Man, those strawberries had looked really good back then.

"It seemed to me that you haven't eaten strawberries in a while, so I thought you would like this pie!" Carefully, she reached into the basket and took out the pastry, and Marx's stomach did a flip; its crunchy pastry had a perfect golden hue under the morning sun, and the sweet smell of strawberries was just heavenly.

"B-but…why…"

"How many times do I have to say it? You're my friend, Marx! And I just _know_ you would do the same for me, because I know I'm your friend too!" And she gave him another of his annoying smiles – which somehow didn't seem nearly as annoying now.

He swallowed hard; he had to tell her. He didn't want her tagging along anymore, she was going to screw up everything and he had to say something but the words wouldn't come out-

_Ugly. Useless. _

"Oh, I know! Pies taste waaaaaay better with some ice cream!"

_Stupid. Go away._

"Wait, is it even OK to eat pie and ice cream for breakfast? Eh, who cares, right?"

_I hate you._

"Hey, you wouldn't happen to have some ice cream, do you?"

_**I HATE YOU.**_

"….hey, are you OK? Marx?"

"….I'm fine" he stepped aside as if telling her to come inside, his voice suddenly hoarse; "I…think I might have some leftover milk in the kitchen. Not ice cream, though."

"Aw, that's OK! But that means we'll have to go shopping for ice cream later!" She stepped inside, humming to herself and heading for the kitchen and although the jester couldn't look properly at her face, he knew she was smiling another of her stupid, dumb, _wonderful_ smiles; "I just hope you really like my pie! I prepared it with extra care, just for you~!"

As she disappeared into the kitchen, Marx's chest tightened almost painfully.

….

He guessed it wouldn't hurt to have her tag along, if only for a little while longer.


End file.
